'...The Russian civil war was one of the major events of the last century, leading to the establishment of the Soviet Union. After the First World War the British Government, with the full backing of Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill, sent British forces to help the White Russian armies end the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1918–1920 the RAF sent 221, 266 and 47 Squadron to fight alongside General Denekin in South Russia.

The RAF launched attacks on Red Army troops, ships and aircraft, and dropped bombs on Grozney, Astrokhan and Tsaritsin (Stalingrad), which was captured by British tanks 23 years before Hitler’s army was destroyed there. Many of the RAF men were experienced and battle-hardened pilots, having fought on the Western Front against the German Air Force; the Red Air Force soon learned the quality of their opponents.

With the overall collapse of the White Forces in South Russia, the British were forced to make an honourable withdrawal in 1920. The contribution made by the RAF aircrews to the White Russian cause was nonetheless great, and out of all proportion to their numbers.'

Re: New film and series about the 1920 Polish-soviet war

My Russian Civil war is very limited to one film, and few units and a Osprey publishing book on the White Armies..... I was aware of the Polish and Czech forces in the conflict as they were quite active and also the French as was Generals overseeing how things were going to report back..... I think i have much of the information in unread books i havn't got round too yet..... Also to add in many photos that i have seen the Russian units seemed to be sporting a substantial amount of British Uniforms and equipment with own insignia attached.....

Re: New film and series about the 1920 Polish-soviet war

Red Army

By early 1920, the Red Army had been very successful against the White armies. They defeated Denikin and signed peace treaties with Latvia and Estonia. The Polish front became their most important war theater and a plurality of Soviet resources and forces were diverted to it. In January 1920, the Red Army began concentrating a 700,000-strong force near the Berezina River and on Belarus.

By the time Poles launched their Kiev offensive, the Red Southwestern Front had about 82,847 soldiers including 28,568 front-line troops. The Poles had some numerical superiority, estimated from 12,000 to 52,000 personnel. By the time of the Soviet counter-offensive in mid 1920 the situation had been reversed: the Soviets numbered about 790,000 – at least 50,000 more than the Poles; Tukhachevsky estimated that he had 160,000 "combat ready" soldiers; Piłsudski estimated his enemy's forces at 200,000–220,000.

In the course of 1920, almost 800,000 Red Army personnel were sent to fight in the Polish war, of whom 402,000 went to the Western front and 355,000 to the armies of the South-West front in Galicia. Grigoriy Krivosheev gives similar numbers, with 382,000 personnel for the Western Front and 283,000 personnel for the Southwestern Front.

Polish forces

The Polish Army was made up of soldiers who had formerly served in the various partitioning empires, supported by some international volunteers, such as the Kościuszko Squadron. Boris Savinkov was at the head of an army of 20,000 to 30,000 largely Russian POWs, and was accompanied by Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius. The Polish forces grew from approximately 100,000 in 1918 to over 500,000 in early 1920. In August, 1920, the Polish army had reached a total strength of 737,767 people; half of that was on the frontline. Given Soviet losses, there was rough numerical parity between the two armies; and by the time of the battle of Warsaw Poles might have even had a slight advantage in numbers and logistics.

Re: New film and series about the 1920 Polish-soviet war

By 1920 Denikin had lost the support of the allies after an estimated 100,000 Jews were killed in various brutal pogroms perpetrated by his forces and other anti-bolshevik armies; Denikin resigned in April 1920 to be replaced by Wrangel.